Wednesday, January 22, 2014

BAYFLOWER MOVING GROUP REVIEW

I have decided to share my experience using the Bayflower Moving Group. Let this be a warning to ANYONE and EVERYONE who is considering using this company. Keep in mind this was MY experience and these are MY opinions. Although you MAY have a different experience, please consider the following. I want to prevent anyone else from having to endure what I have gone through.

So I moved from Williamsport PA to Dallas TX, no short drive by any means. Having a moving company take my stuff down for me as I drive at my own leisure sounded like the perfect idea....boy was I WRONG. At least I was wrong to use Bayflower, yes I said Bayflower and not Mayflower, your first indication that this was a poor choice, they had to make their name sound so much like another already established moving company just to get business if you ask me. A pathetic little trick I might add.

HIDDEN FEES
I was quoted a price when the company knew what I had, where I was going, and how they were going to get it there. HOWEVER, once at my home for pick up they started to explain how their pricing actually works. You see there is MUCH MORE to their quoted price, that's just where the price STARTS, that's before they even touch anything. When they arrived LATE, by 3 hours from when they said they would be there, they showed me the quoted price that had already been established over the phone. I agreed with it and said that was my understanding. They then sit you down and go over all the expenses you will now have to pay, they charge for such things as tape, packing bubble wrap, other kind of wrap, cloth, and so on because as they said, they have to wrap everything, especially if I haven't taped anything myself. I understood these requirements so I of course agreed to it. NOW HOLD ON, what if I decided I didn't want to pay all that extra stuff? What if I had my quote in mind and not a penny over?? If that were the case I would have been in big trouble, and you may be too if you aren't expecting it. How much more did I pay AFTER the quoted price? over 1,100 dollars. Yes folks, 1,100 for tape! They taped EVERYTHING, even if I already had. Apparently your taped boxes won't be good enough in their eyes. I say hidden fees but it's more like hidden right in front of your face, again what was I supposed to say, "No, I won't pay for that extra stuff." If I had, I would have had a big problem on my hands considering I was leaving the state that night. They obviously know these things and therefore add on extra charges knowing you'll have to pay. AGAIN, that was over 1,100 dollars added on to the quoted price. It could have been much more than that too, lucky for me it wasn't. It depends on what you have and what they have to do with it, some things they said they HAD to use certain kinds of wrapping with, and if it cost more to do that, well then you're just going to pay it.

They pointed out many things that would cost extra. A lot of it was understandable and I agreed to it but a lot of it was just to make money. 10 dollars here, 50 dollars there, and 5 bucks for this, 20 for that, and soon you're over a thousand dollars. Trust me, it's exactly what they did to me. For example they said if they had to carry stuff into the new home and their truck was more than 75 feet away from the front door, it would cost extra. Carrying things upstairs would also cost extra money. (Later I was told no, this was false, well then who do I believe, it was the same company.) Point is, for a full sized house I can see this getting to be in the thousands. I had a two bedroom apartment and my extra fees added up to over 1,100 dollars. Keep in mind, that was ON TOP of what had already been quoted to me. I had to pay half of this right then and there and the rest when they got to Texas. Remember that if you aren't expecting to pay that much money right out of your pocket that day because THEY WILL NEED IT.

I will say the 3 guys that showed up to do the moving were very fast and polite. Didn't speak English all that well but I'm not one who cares about such things, but if you are, beware. Later when I unpacked I found a lot of stuff I had told them NOT to take, this may have been part of the language barrier due to one of them that spoke NO English at all seemed to be doing his own thing. So near the end the main guy pulls me aside and says his guys, (the two other people) worked really hard for me here today and deserve a tip. I said, well ya sure I don't have a problem with that. As an afterthought I said, well how much does a person get for a tip?? He replied, "Oh for this much stuff and this many hours, people give them 20-30 dollars." I thought, ok, that's fair, I'll do that. He then asks me if I want to pay that tip in cash or just add it to the bill's total. I said, I have cash, oh well, no, go ahead add the tip to the total bill. He then proceeds to add 150 DOLLARS for the tip. 150 dollars folks. 150. Not only did he raise his quoted 20-30 dollar tip to 50 dollars, but he added himself! How rude and unprofessional to give yourself a 50 dollar tip, your two buddies 50 dollar tips and tell me 30 bucks was customary. Hey, I guess I'm just a big tipper! and I didn't even know it. They didn't do 50 dollars of tip money worth of work that day and even if they had, shouldn't I be the one to make that decision? They made it for me, WITHOUT my ok.

WHAT YOU CAN'T TAKE WITH YOU
The movers first pointed out everything that they can not pack into the truck. Plants are one item that they will not take. This was personally upsetting because although I had figured this, it was hard to let go of some of my plants. I took what I could in my car but the rest had to find new homes. The movers also said that they couldn't transport anything liquid. So keep in mind, everything under your sink and many items from your kitchen will not be taken. They wrapped everything like my couch and chairs and tables, which was good because I didn't want anything to get scratched or broken. They said it wasn't their fault if it happened though. Odd......not sure how they figure that one BUT ANYWAY, they told me that my computer desk would have to be taken apart, which they would do before they loaded it up. Much later they said they were just going to try to put it on the truck instead of taking it apart and if it breaks, well that was just a risk they were willing to take because they couldn't guarantee it will make the trip. Fast forward several weeks......yes, it broke in the move.

HOW LONG DOES IT ACTUALLY TAKE
December 21, 2013 is when they came and moved all of my belongings into their truck. I write this January 22nd and I do not have all of my stuff yet. I made the trip from PA to TX in 3 days, going at my own pace and stopping each night. They called me right before Christmas and said they felt they would be there the day after Christmas and I thought, oh good, that's not too bad! Well that day came and went. The next week came and went too. Eventually I started to call them to ask where my stuff was and they told us that, "they didn't know." but don't worry, "they were somewhere." Later they told me it took so long probably due to the holidays and bad weather. Excuse me for sounding unsympathetic here but who the hell cares? I paid you to do a job, period. You can't just take your time! OR CAN YOU? According to Bayflower yes, you can. See they won't give you an actual delivery date, they just mark it as, "as soon as possible." Well that doesn't mean a 3 day trip as I did or even 3 weeks. That could mean a month or more, it just depends because, "as soon as possible" is subjective. Keep that in mind if you want a speedy move, and again I understand I was moving several states away but you know what........so did they.

Finally they called me out of the blue to tell me my stuff would be here the next day at 8am. Thank you for a call on a Sunday, the day before I start my brand new job! Nothing like asking the new boss if the new guy can take HIS FIRST DAY OFF on his FIRST DAY OF WORK. Well I just couldn't make that but I had been waiting so long for my stuff what was I to do? Also you HAD to be there at delivery, it was Bayflower policy. Again, thank you so very much for the heads up the night before. I actually figured they would be late to their estimate of 8am considering they were over 3 hours late when they came to pick up the stuff.Well my sweet girlfriend took off work to be there just so I could get to my first day of work. They showed up EARLY, called and said they were there, inconveniencing us yet again. The easy, quick, convenient move I had planned in my mind had already been a headache but it was just about to begin.

DINGS, DENTS, AND SCRATCHES, OH MY!
After they moved everything off of the truck and left they called back hours later stating that they realized they had forgot a few things on the truck and would have to come back. They said they would just leave the stuff on my door step and it should be ok. Oh really? It SHOULD be ok? What if it wasn't ok? That was another risk they were just going to take, MY stuff sitting outside in broad daylight with NO protection. Not sure how they forgot an entire dresser, considering it was one of two that had been moved but they did and left it for me on my door step. They also forgot a wooden stand that they had broken IN HALF, and left on my door step, thanks for leaving what was now nothing but garbage. Annoyed and disappointed, I moved the dresser inside my home without their help, as they were already gone. They left all of my stuff in the living room piled on top of itself. Many of the boxes were upside down but since they were all taped with dozens of rolls of packing tape, I'm sure they assumed the contents would be fine. I will actually say, NOTHING inside my boxes was damaged. Of course, I was the one that packed the boxes, so.....good job Andrew! Now the stuff outside of the boxes.....that's another story. There were a lot of scratches and broken items including, the wooden stand, one of my dressers, my computer desk, my coffee table, and my TV stand. I was really disappointed with this, with all the wrapping they did you wouldn't think anything would be hurt but here we are . My TV stand and coffee table both had a lot of glass in them and I would like to say all the glass was fine in the move and not broken. All in all at this point I was annoyed and disappointed but at least I had my stuff finally!!! OR DID I? No I didn't.

MISSING BOX AND THE REAL TROUBLE BEGINS
I finally unpacked everything and was down to the last box, this was the box that would have everything in it that I hadn't found yet. As I opened it and started to take out objects I started to wonder how everything missing would all be in here. Well, it wasn't in there. I was missing a box, a big box, the biggest box on the truck in fact. This box, among other things, contained the cushions to my couch. Why they packed those in a box instead of keeping them on the couch when they wrapped it up entirely like a mummy is beyond me, but they did and then they forgot to deliver that box to my house! As a side note this box also had my computer mouse and keyboard in it, making my IMAC useless to me for over a month.

Here comes the most annoying and unprofessional part of the whole experience, and that's saying a lot since so far they had excelled at being unprofessional. I called the movers that delivered the box to let them know they forgot a very large one. The man said, (in his broken English) that he was just the driver and had no idea where my box was and that he was sure he had delivered everything of mine that was on the truck. (REMEMBER HE SAID THAT, JUST REMEMBER THAT LINE FOR LATER). I tried to call the main number but being after 5 there was no response. I would have to wait at least one more day before I got my box. (haha, as if it would only be ONE day!) The next day I called to find out where my box was, after being on hold for 15 minutes, yes 15 entire minutes, I know because I set down my phone after a while and refused to hang up just to see how long it would take. I was told they had no idea where my box was but that they wanted to call the warehouse in Maryland because odds were, THAT is where my missing box was. Maryland? I live in Texas, why was my stuff EVER in the state of Maryland in a warehouse instead of being driven straight to my door??? Well that's just how they do things! Before they could hang up someone started to ask if that was Andrew on the phone, and the person talking to me was surprised but said, why yes, she was talking to Andrew. They already found your missing box, they know where it is! Oh good! It's not lost anymore, it's just not where it needs to be. They tell me that it was delivered to the wrong house, someone in Dallas has it at their house. Remember what the driver told me? He was right, he did deliver everything of mine that was on the truck......HE JUST DID IT AT THE WRONG ADDRESS.

But hey, mistakes happen right? We're all human, and although this was EXTREMELY annoying and cumbersome, I wasn't angry. I was relieved that my box wasn't lost or stolen or something but now I had a new uneasy feeling that my belongings were in some other person's home. Now is where the company gets very unprofessional. They tell me that if I would like, I can just drive over to the guy's house and get the stuff myself! They'll give me his phone number and I can just call and set it up. Well, first of all, I said that box will never fit in my car, besides the obvious fact that I DIDN'T screw this up and I shouldn't have to be the one to go get it. They then suggest that the guy just brings me my box. On his own time? His own gas money? His own effort? Wait a minute......who made the mistake? Who should correct it? YOU are a professional company, YOU fix YOUR mistakes when YOU make them. How dare you suggest we fix YOUR problem. Yet, I wanted my box. So I said, well call him and see what he wants to do. They said if he wouldn't bring me the box they could just ship it UPS or FedEx. That was my choice just because the last thing I want to do is inconvenience that poor guy that has my big annoying box in his home. They said they would talk to him and get back to me.

THEY NEVER CALLED ME BACK. So a week later my dad decides to call and find out what's going on, not that I wanted him involved but he was pretty mad at the crappy service. Everyone around me was saying how insane this was and that I needed that box and I should have it by now. He called me after talking to Bayflower all proud telling me they know where my box is and who has it and that they think the guy is willing to drive it to me or I can just go get it. I told my dad that I knew all of that and it was what they had already told me a week ago AND they still hadn't called me back and we weren't any closer to a solution than we were when I spoke to them.

As each day goes by I expect to just find my giant box waiting for me at when I go home every night, but it's never there as if it hasn't been shipped to me yet. Another week goes by and I still haven't heard back from them. My girlfriend decides to call because she is really annoyed at this point because let's face it, this whole situation is ridiculous. She calls and says she will just go ahead and go get it herself and to give the guy's number to us. Well that WOULD solve this problem, if WE do it OURSELVES. Just go get the stupid box, after all it has been an entire month since it left PA. But should we? No, not in a million years should we have to do anything out of our way. I PAID to have that box and the rest of my things delivered to my house and they weren't, NOW they want me to spend MORE money to get the same result that I ALREADY paid for??? I can take the broken items, I can take the long time, I can take the extra charges and fees, and I can take all of them being uncoordinated with a lack of communication but I WILL NOT take this! Getting that box to me should have been their first priority. They really have done nothing in 3 weeks to get that box to me. It might as well be the day I first called them about the missing box because NOTHING has changed since that day. This is just plain UNACCEPTABLE.

So I called back today to say, we aren't going to go get the box, and the guy isn't going to come give it to me on his own time and dime. It is THEIR responsibility and THEY need to take care of this. They said we can just get it ourselves and that would be the easiest and fastest way. Really? For who? Ohhhhhhh, right, for YOU! You already have the money right? Why do anything else even though you screwed up? I told them I didn't care if I had to wait longer for the box because it's already been a month. The person kept trying to talk me out of this idea, the idea of THEM fixing this problem and that I should just do it myself at this point. I refused to fix their problem and soon I was talking to someone else, they were very rude by the way. Didn't appreciate THAT considering I was the one that SHOULD have and COULD have been rude and yelling and demanding, yet.......they were being inconsiderate to ME??? Shows what kind of company this really is.

If you call the company number expect to be talked down to, talked over, and with a lack of respect and common curtsy one would hope NEVER to find from a professional company. All they were trying to do was wash their hands of this situation in the easiest and cheapest way they could get away with. WELL I'M NOT LETTING THEM GET AWAY WITH IT. You're a moving company and you moved my box to the wrong address. Customer service that fights with the customer? That's what you'll get if you choose them.

All in all if I could do things differently I certainly wouldn't use this company. I certainly DO NOT recommend it to ANYONE ever. They were untimely, unprofessional, unreliable, misleading, at times rude, unhelpful, and annoying to work with. There are plenty of moving companies out there and I sincerely hope they are not all like this, although I have not tried them. If you still want to use them that is fine with me but remember the key points from my experience.

They will charge you more than what they say.

They may not show up when they say they will.

They may take their time getting to your destination.

They may break your items.

They may lose your items.

If there is a problem they will not fix it in a timely manner. (giving them the benefit of the doubt here considering they have YET to fix my problem but I am saying they will fix it.)

They will be very difficult to get a hold of if you need them.

They may become rude when you want them to fix a problem they caused.

Once they have their money they will NOT want to hear from you.

Here is a quote from their website: " As a leader among home movers and moving companies, we have the experts
and options to ensure your employees’ or families’ possessions are moved
professionally and on-time" Well.....not for me, it wasn't on time, it wasn't professional and your experts were rude and or misleading. And as for being a leader among home movers.....I'd hate to see the last place company! The whole website really is a joke, it makes them look really good, again VERY misleading.

Go ahead and use Bayflower at your own risk. It's going to be one in my opinion. I should have done it myself, I at least would have all of my stuff right now and I know none of it would be damaged. Those things I can guarantee but Bayflower CAN'T. If you're looking for a moving company PLEASE, keep on looking.

UPDATE2/2/14 Bayflower told me on the phone that they would go ahead and ship my box to me. After waiting and waiting for that I finally needed to go get my box on my own because I heard NOTHING from them. I contacted the guy that had my box and met him at his place (35 minutes away from where I live btw). The box was way too big for my car so I had to borrow a van to go get it. He told me that HE had contacted Bayflower Moving Group first about my box and then NEVER HEARD FROM THEM AGAIN. Odd....they told me they called him several times and continued to try to get a hold of him. He also agreed that he would never use this company every again. So add LYING to the list of things that Bayflower does. And add that they DID NOT resolve the problem that THEY created. Refusing to finish the job that they were paid to do. What a terrible company. I sincerely hope you go with another choice to help you in your move after reading this and I really hope I save some people the headache, money, frustration, and anger that they will probably face if they use Bayflower Moving Group.

Just went through something VERY similar with Bayflower...the sad thing is there is not much that can be done about this company. I complained to the Better Business Bureau, and all Bayflower did was post my paperwork as a response! For that act of low to no effort, they don't get dinged as badly by the BBB. I also complained to the Florida Attorney General - however, Florida doesn't do anything against bad businesses, they simply referred me to a volunteer organization called "Seniors Vs. Crime," a group of retirees with no power and no funding who call and yell at the company on your behalf. I don't expect much from that...

More of the same! To say Bayflower brought all of my moving nightmares to life would a a huge understatement. They charged me 4 times higher than their quote. Simply put this was the worst consumer experience of my life, I felt violated and so angry I literally wanted to hurt someone. At the end of the day I was left frustrated, ripped off and angry. DO NOT USE Bayflower. The laws are designed to protect moving companies and you are placed in a helpless situation.